Remind me

I do seriously intend to do a lot of memory training this year. I'm going to internettishly reach out around the world to other memory people and set up some kind of routine of comparing training results. And also nagging me to practice, because what I really need in life is a slave-driver.

Without fail

I am determined to keep my sort-of new year resolution and post something here every night, even when I'm tired out after all the house-moving and work-doing of the last few days. But did you know you can see Paul Merton's old channel 4 series on 4OD? I've only just discovered it, and it's still as funny as it was twenty years ago!

Pat it and prick it and mark it with B

Some people might think my filing system is a bit strange, but it made perfect sense for me to mark the cardboard boxes containing my brother's stuff with a big B when I was packing up and moving house, even though my name starts with B and his doesn't. But the system let me down a little bit when for some reason I packed one of my boxloads of kitchen stuff in a box with a B on it and spent ages looking for the box with my kettle and iron in. Still, the day was saved before I had to go to work with an unironed shirt, so there's no need to worry.

New year, new home, new bloggery

It's 2014, bizarre and futuristic though that sounds. The far-flung future world of the year 2000 is ancient history. Transformers: The Movie took place in the distant future of 2005, which was nine years ago. Next year is the year that Marty McFly travelled to, where flying cars and holographic movies are commonplace.

I'm living in a non-futuristic but very nice flat in the attic of an empty guest house in Belper now - I finished moving all my rubbish in here yesterday, so now this new year is most definitely a new start. Since I've been working in Belper for the last year and a half, on and off, this will save me no end of commuting time, and I've already made plans to spend this time in productive ways which if I sit down and think about it seem to be scheduled for at least thirty hours every day. Still, no harm in being optimistic with the new year resolutions, eh? One thing I'm going to do is get back in the habit of writing a mindless, inconsequential blog every day - and for those who are more interested in what I have to say about memory competitions, please head over to Mnemotechnics.org, which I'm planning to make the home of all my waffling about memory subjects.

I'll be doing some memory training, too, hopefully - finishing fifth in the world championship not having done any practice was a pleasant surprise, but I'd rather move back up the leaderboard than keep sinking down. I don't know if I'll go to the world championship 2014 (current plans are for it to be in China, but when did it ever happen in the time and place we thought it would be in January?) but I'll make an effort to get to as many competitions as my funds will allow. The fun one will be the Extreme Memory Tournament at the end of April in San Diego - I'll write more about that shortly. The Extremeness of it relates to the fast-paced, head-to-head format that might actually make it exciting for people to watch!

The Cambridge Memory Championship will certainly happen, at the end of May most likely, although where exactly it will be I haven't decided yet. Belper is possible, or it might stay in Attenborough. It almost certainly won't be in Cambridge.

And if you're interested in old comics (or even if you're not, because take my word for it, you should be), you should check out the blog I've been reading instead of unpacking all my boxes: The All Star Comics Review, a very fun look at the first-ever superhero team comic, featuring the Justice Society of America!